TNT realizes people will never stop confusing Frank Darabont's L.A. Noir with the video game

Since it was first announced, Frank Darabont’s new TNT pilot L.A. Noir has been saddled with jokes about it being related to the video game L.A. Noire, simply because the two share similar time periods, locales, dramatic milieus, character archetypes, cultural references, and titles. Anyway, that should all mostly be cleared up now, seeing as Darabont tells io9 that he’s changed his mind, no longer borrowing the title of John Buntin’s book L.A. Noir that involuntarily conjures images of 1940s detectives slowly vibrating their way through Los Angeles, always on the lookout for clues they can tap thoughtfully in their notebooks.

According to Darabont, “The video game company with the video game called L.A. Noire (with an e!) threatened to sue the shit out of me, TNT, every company that actually ever worked in Hollywood,” adding, “They have the billions of dollars to back it up, apparently.” However, said video game company, Rockstar, quickly denied that allegation, responding through its publisher, Take-Two, that it only contacted TNT regarding “concern over the confusion,” and were informed the network had decided on its own to change the title, likely because TNT is also sick of people wedging awkward references to the video game in every report about the show. “It's unfortunate that Mr. Darabont finds it necessary to gain publicity by making inaccurate statements,” Take-Two spokesperson Alan Lewis said while pressing his “Doubt” button, which also caused him to slam his fist down on the table and scream, as this is how one expresses “doubt.”

Anyway, Darabont now says the show will be called Lost Angels, which only has that old Donald Sutherland/Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys movie to be confused with, so we’ll begin doing that immediately. Boy, it sure is strange they’d make a whole TV show about Ad-Rock going to a mental institution for troubled teens, but WHATEVER FRANK DARABONT. [via Kotaku]